Consumers are increasingly using kiosks to conduct business with enterprises. The kiosks come in a variety of sizes and are used for a variety of purposes. Some kiosks are drive through, such as fast food establishments, pharmacies, banks, and the like. Other kiosks are stationary located in gas stations, airlines, grocery stores, department stores, and the like.
In addition, what is considered a kiosk is evolving with today's technology. For example, digital signs now provide advertisements and mechanisms for users to interact with the displays to perform transactions. Such mechanisms include blue tooth communication, Near Field Communication (NFC), Quick Response (QR) code scanning, WiFi communication, and the like.
Self-Service terminal kiosks that accept cash and coins generally require application level control over when the currency accepting devices are enabled for accepting inputs (notes and coins) and when they are disabled from accepting input. For example, when an item has been successfully purchased and (if necessary) bagged, then the cash devices might be enabled for input allowing the shopper to quickly begin finalization by directly inserting cash/coins rather than going through a series of touch screen interactions that enable the system to accept cash. Likewise, when the self-service system is busy with operations such as responding to security condition then the cash devices may need to be disabled to prevent the shopper from beginning a finalization process by inserting notes/coins.
Most self-service applications enable/disable the cash input devices each time an item is scanned at the self-service kiosk. This ensures that money cannot be accepted (forcing a start of finalization) until the itemization bagging operation is completed successfully. After the item is bagged in self-checkout, the cash devices are re-enabled for the possible insertion of notes/coin. As such, the cash input devices are typically disabled/enabled once for each item scanned.
When a coin device in particular is disabled, it must not accept money, instead returning inserted coins immediately (if not directly) to the shopper. Traditionally, this involves the use of a mechanical diverter that directs inserted coins to a return shoot instead of into the device accepter.
Unfortunately these mechanical diverters are subject to wear and have a limited life span of 2 to 3 million cycles. When self-checkout lanes handle 250 transactions per day and each transaction on average sells 10 items, then over 365 days the cash input devices may be cycled over 900,000 times/year and rapidly reach their end of life of 2-3 million cycles.